fresh lemonade

Ok, so on Thursday morning I got up pretty early (which I have been doing a lot lately) and ate my favorite breakfast, fryed sausages and a pastry with strawberry jelly. Then Mama and I went to my high school to get my schedual and ask about the length of my skirt, it has to be BELOW my knees!!!!! I almost died! The best part of my day was right before lunch when I went to the market for the first time, I thought that it was huge, but according to Mama and Prilu it was tiny. We had to get fish and the lady cut the fish in half, length wise, including the head. While we were waiting for her to clean the fish Mama and I played with the shrimp that were there (they still had all their legs and eyes and everything) and made little shrimp puppets that talked to each other; people laughed at us :). Then we came back to the house to prepare lunch, I got the most important job, to make the lemonade.
Now, this lemonade is not the silly stuff that comes out of a can like in the USA, no it is the real deal fresh, made from water, lemons and sugar. So I went to work carfully squeezing each lemon to get the exact amount of juice needed. Now the lemons in Peru are not for the faint of heart, these are hardcore, little, green peruvian lemons (very sassy). So after the pain staking task of squeezing the lemons I had to measure the suger. Now you may think that this is an easy task, WRONG!!! You see, if you don´t put enough in then it is sour, and no one wants to drink lemonade that is too sour. But if you put to much in then it is too sweet, and no one wants to drink lemonade that is sickly sweet. So I had to put one spoonful at a time, very slowly; I can see mama watching me out of the corner of her eye *gulp*. Another spoonful, then another, then... STOP, no wait I need more *deep breath*. Just one more and.....BAM! PERFECTION! I had successfuly created probably the most delicious lemonade ever to exist on this wonderful plant we call earth. Each sip was heaven in liquid form. It had a taste so radiant that you were worried that once it was gone you would have nothing to live for!
Needless to say everyone loved it and I passed the test.

The rest of my day was pretty low key after that episode, hanging out in the shop, meeting Prilu´s brother, and buying shoes.
I can not wait for school on Monday, I am kind of freaking out, but I am really excited too.

XOXOXO
Lindsey

:)

ok, last night (Tuesday) was my best night so far. My sister, Prilu came home from school and we made dinner for ourself because our parents were at the store. When Mama and Papi came home I gave them one of the gifts that I had bought them and they all loved it! Then we sat around the table huddled up in blankets and joked around. They gave me an alpaca hat with ear flap to try on, I looked rediculous, but it was sooooo funny, of course i have a picture. Then we were joking about how at school all of the boys will line up to help me with my homework and to take me out, this is Mama´s favorite thing to joke about.
Today (Wednesday) when I woke up Mama was not here, all of her stuff was, but not her. I called her name and started to get really worried. Turns out she just had to run to the market for some fruit. Then we went to a store so I could be measured for my uniform ( I start school on Monday!!!!). And then we ran around town tying to find my sweats for PE. It was such a great morning!

XOXOXO
Lindsey

Tuesday

well, today was a much better day than yesterday. I spent the morning reading in the sun with was so peaceful. Then mama took me to the high school that I will be attending, I got my text books and almost died; then are all in spanish! Then we went to all these little shops that sell a whole buch of typical Peruvian stuff. Mama bought me a little toy gymnast and she like to call him my first friend in Peru :). I think that I am finally starting to kinds adjust to living here. I honestly can not imagine anything that is more different from the USA. I want to be home so bad, but I do not want to leave. Oh well, hopefully school will make the days go by faster. I will keep you posted.

Love,
Lindsey

peru at last

Greetings from Huancayo Peru! The trip here was crazy!!! It was a two hour plane ride to Miami, where I stayed for one night before taking the 6 hour plane ride to Lima Peru. OH MY GOSH, Peru is soooooooo different. What is funny is that the first three resturants that i saw where: KFC, Burger King, and chinese food. It was really funny. I spent two nights in Lima where I met all of the students from all over the world that decided to come to Peru. They were all so nice, some of the countries that they were from are Belgium, Germany, France, Switzerland ( I made a really good friend from here!), and New Zealand. On sunday we drove for 8 hours in this amazing bus up to Huancayo. Unfortuanatly I did not feel well the entire time. Then when we finally arrived we met up with our host families, everyone was so excited. When I got to my house I still did not feel very well so I did not eat much dinner. I also got really homesick, i felt bad because I was crying for most of Monday morning. But my host mom made me feel a lot better. I am still homesick and I still miss the USA and my family very much, but I am a bit more excited for this next year. I will start school in a week, so everything is going to get veny crazy, luckily I have an amazing host family to help me. I miss everyone so much, please e-mail me!
Love,
Lindsey

saying goodbye

Wow. These past few days have been CRAY! On Saturday I had my going away party. I was so happy that so many people could come, but saying goodbye to all of them was really hard. Of course there were tears, but I know that it is all for the best. Today I had to say goodbye to the Lenahan's, that was definitely one of the harder goodbyes for me. Oh yeah on Saturday before my party we went and had family photos done before I left, it was so fun fun. We even brought Rudy with us, but he was not to crazy about the flashes.
So packing has actually been pretty easy, I went through my closest and all my drawers and grabbed the clothes I liked. It was so cool because mom told me to buy these space bags that suck all the air out and flatten your clothes, they work really well! I finally finished today and I had to weigh my suitcase ( weight limit of 44lbs). I was holding my breath, guess what it weighs, 43 pounds!
It was very strange going through today knowing that it was my last day here for a year, but the extent of this trip has not fully registered in my brain yet. I am sure it will soon. The next time that I write it will be in Peru!!!! I am so excited!! I will keep you posted!

Hello there everyone. Its hard to believe that in just over a month I will be on my way to Peru! And I am also very excited because I found out my host family, I will have a mom, dad and sister (who is only one year younger then me!). I will be living in the city of Huancayo, which is located in the Andes mountains, 10,629 ft above sea level and 6 hours east of Lima. My mom and I are very eager to start packing and shopping and all that fun stuff. I can not believe that I have to start packing a month in advance!!! I am sure that this next month will be a flurry of going away parties, packing, traveling, and many arguments on why I should stay :) but I don't think that anyone could talk me out of this, it is an amazing opportunity and I would not miss it for the world! talk to you later!!

Hello to everyone! As you most likely know, my name is Lindsey Rhodes, and I would like to study for a year in Peru. Not only do I want to become fluent in Spanish, but I also love to meet new people and learn new things. One of my favorite things to do is to learn about other people's culture and any way of life that is different from mine, and Peru will offer that to me. When I return from my year away I want to share with people that that there are other ways of life instead of just our own. I want to share all of my new skills that I will pick up and the new customs I grow used to. However, this experience does cost a lot of money, and at the moment my family can not pay that on our own seeing as my sister is in college. I really do need your help, going to South America is a dream of mine and sometimes people need help to achieve their dreams. I already have a part-time job that I balance with school, I am also picking up other little jobs like baby-sitting. My mom and I are planning fundraising parties for the next coming months. So please whatever you can contribute, no matter how small will be so greatly appreciated. Thank you all SO much for your support!
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